He told the Independent: "There is a bigger picture for sure and it goes back to affordability. We will spend money in January to try and bring fresh faces into the group and give us that support at the top end.

"But the reality [about] all the names bandied about is 'are they going to be available?' Certainly we will bring in what we can help us and then we will revisit again.

"All our problems were never going to be solved in this window because the January window is one of the least productive and the least movement goes on there.

"But we will look to solve some of our problems then and then we will look to revisit it in the summer knowing that in the summer we will be better placed than the last previous summer."